Addicted to Media

Book review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:56:53 PDT

I knew exactly what I wanted when I went in search of my last book to read. I wanted something dark and atmospheric, preferably with a paranormal or supernatural element, that would leave me breathless and swept off my feet. I’ve read a lot of good books this year but it has been months since I was absolutely devastated by a book. When I picked up Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood, it certainly seemed to meet the requirements with its gorgeous cover and a title that just rolls off the tongue.

Cas Lowood is a ghost hunter who inherited his skills from his late father. He kills the dead using his father’s athame, relieving the world of vengeful, restless and violent ghosts. When Cas and his mother travel to Thunder Bay, Ontario, neither of them expect that this will be anything other than a normal assignment. But “Anna Dressed in Blood” is no normal ghost. She is more violent and furious than any ghost Cas has ever encountered and far more powerful than he could ever have imagined.

As Cas unravels the horrific story surrounding Anna’s death, he finds himself confronted with the circumstances surrounding another murder: that of his father. With the help of his mother, a powerful witch, and his friends Thomas and Carmel, Cas must complete his task and come to terms with his growing feelings for Anna.

Anna Dressed in Blood is absolutely terrifying in parts and has all the elements of a truly disturbing ghost story. There are scenes that are absolutely shocking and Kendare Blake certainly resisted the temptation to sugar-coat any part of this book. Her description of Anna is spectacular with the electrified, inky tendrils of her hair, her brute strength and her white dress dripping in blood.

The book is written in the first person from Cas’s point of view and it is easy to relate to this likeable, witty and intensely self-aware character. It is a long time since I have liked a protagonist this much.

Most importantly, Anna Dressed in Blood is beautifully written with many of the passages as lyrical and poetic as the title.

“I like it more to come to a place like this, where the scent of death is carried to you on every seventh breath”.

I was hooked from the first and enjoyed every single page of this book. It is the type of book that I can imagine reading time and time again and has me wondering if I don’t just prefer books with male protagonists. It was everything I had wanted: dark, atmospheric, dramatic and utterly devastating.

I would certainly recommend this book to fans of paranormal, young adult fiction or, indeed, fans of Supernatural or The Secret Circle. In fact, Anna Dressed in Blood was recently voted one of the YALSA 2012 Quick Picks for reluctant Young Readers making it an inherently readable book that readers would pick up and read for their own pleasure.

It has been announced that Anna Dressed in Blood will be followed up with a sequel, Girl of Nightmares but for once I can honestly say that it doesn’t need it. The story was perfectly wrapped up in this instalment and Anna Dressed in Blood works well as a stand alone novel or as part of a series. This might be of interest to readers suffering from young adult series fatigue!

I happily give Anna Dressed in Blood five out of five stars and will certainly be both reading it again and seeking out the sequel when it is released.

Anna Dressed in Blood will be released in paperback in the US on July 3, 2012 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com. Readers in the UK can pre-order from Amazon.co.uk where it will be available from July 5, 2012.

Article first published as Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake on Blogcritics.

An advance, electronic copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

Book Review: Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:43:34 PDT

Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell is the type of book that I normally wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. It wasn’t just the offensive title (misspelling and all) or the equally offensive cover, but the fact that it is described as satire and I am well known for having no sense of humour at all.

Still, I was intrigued by the fact that DJ/rapper/producer Triple Threat (a.k.a. Nina Miller) was working to produce a soundtrack for the book, the first time a hip-hop soundtrack has been dedicated to a novel. When asked how she came to work on this project, when just the name “Koontown Killing Kaper” would be offensive to most people, Triple Threat replied, “I liked the thought of being a part of a project that would cause an immediate reaction and emotion from the listener. Hip-hop’s focus on money, clothes and hoes has made it boring and unoriginal. We need more concept projects like Koontown to break the predictability.”

Hip-hop might be boring but something is not quite right in Koontown, the fictional setting of Bill Campbell’s third novel. Someone or something is killing rappers in Koontown in the most horrific manner. Naturally, the police really sit up and pay attention when a published author and respected member of society is added to the growing pile of corpses. There are rumours that vampire crack babies are doing the killing but that would just be science fiction, right?

Enter Genevieve "Jon Vee" Noire, a former super model and homicide detective, now working as a private detective. Noire teams up with her former partner in the police force and together they navigate the seediest parts of Koontown’s hip-hop underworld to find out just how far up this conspiracy really goes.

This is a town where the deaths of gangsters, grandmothers and straight-A students are so prevalent that bodies are processed on an assembly line that would make Henry Ford proud. In Koontown, gangster rivalries are really just for show, record label flops work as slaves to pay off recording costs, and Cold War biological warfare never really went away.

The charm of satire is that it can get as ridiculous as it wants and once it is done closely mimicking the ridiculosity of real life, it can descend into the downright bizarre. And Koontown Killing Kaper really does get bizarre at times. I initially thought that Bill Campbell might be introducing a touch of the paranormal to his book but it turns out that the evil-doers were far more human and real than I imagined.

At its core, Koontown Killing Kaper is a social commentary on the wrongs that were committed against the black urban population historically: the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, the portrayal of minorities in media, the manipulation of data and statistics to suit the ruling ideology and the insistence of focusing on race when class issues are really at play.

This is a contemporary novel set in the Obama administration. It is chaotic at times, mirroring the mayhem of a city being torn apart by drugs and violence. Is it gratuitous? Sure, some readers might find the violence, blood and gore to be excessive but on the whole, it is no more so than you might expect on adult television. In the end, I’ll borrow Campbell’s tongue-in-cheek description of one of his character's books and say that Koontown Killing Kaper portrays “the gritty reality of America’s inner city streets – the pain, the despair, and, ultimately, the hope that burns within all of us”.

I give Koontown Killing Kaper four out of five stars and will certainly read more of Campbell’s work.

You can purchase Bill Campbell’s Koontown Killing Kaper from Smashwords, Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. You can also download the Triple Threat soundtrack at Bandcamp or visit the koontown.com website for merchandise.

Article first published as Book Review: Koontown Killing Kaper by Bill Campbell on Blogcritics.

An advance, electronic copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

Dance Your Way to Euro 2012 With the Kia Dubstep Competition

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:45:31 PDT

When was the last time you really let you hair down and danced like no one was watching? Well, what would you say if I told you that you can dance your way to the opening ceremony of the UEFA Euro 2012 or even win yourself a new Kia Picanto?

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship is taking place in Poland and Ukraine between 8 June and 1 July this year. It is a massive competition that takes place every four years and this year, Kia have decided to create hype around the tournament by combining two of Europe’s best exports: football and dubstep.

Now I love dubstep and and look forward to massive hits every summer from bands like Chase & Status and Labrinth. It all started when two members of one of my favourite bands, Pendulum, went on to form the dubstep group Knife Party.

The question is: do I love dubstep enough to make a complete fool of myself dancing to Flux Pavilion’s “I Can't Stop”? More that that, am I crazy enough to film myself doing it? For the chance to win flights, hotels and tickets for two to watch the Euro 2012 opening match in Warsaw, plus the chance to win a brand new Kia Picanto, of course I am!

This is my competition entry. I like to think that my pure energy and enthusiasm will get me a spot in the final 8, even though I wasn’t quite dancing in tune in places.

To enter, all you have to do is visit the Kia Dubstep Competition Facebook page and upload a video of you dancing to the dubstep tune “I Can’t Stop” by Flux Pavilion. I’d really recommend visiting the page or the Kia Buzz YouTube channel because there are some truly excellent entries!

Entrants must be over the age of 18 and teams can participate in the videos although a maximum of 2 can claim the prize. Videos must be uploaded by May 13, 2012 so hurry up and do you video today!

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Post but all opinions are my own. And yes, that is really me dancing in that video!

Curzon On Demand: The Fantastic Curated Online Theatre Experience

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:28:04 PDT

Imagine being able to watch the very best in Independent film in the comfort of your own home. Not only that but you’re able to watch them from the day that the film is released in cinemas. When I heard that Curzon Cinema was launching their Curzon On Demand service, I thought it was too good to be true but no, the service has launched and it is absolutely brilliant!

Curzon On Demand brings you a curated online experience featuring the cream of art-house and independent films. This service is nothing like other streaming video services. The films are available as soon as they are released in cinemas so if you can watch it in a Curzon cinema, you can watch it using this service.

They have a vast online catalogue of classic and contemporary films and where possible, the films are streamed in HD (but that depends on the speed of your internet connection, of course).

I thought I’d try out the site and I decided to watch the 2011 film Corpo Celeste, an Italian film written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher. I specifically picked a foreign language film so that I could test the experience of watched a subtitled film at home.

Corpo Celeste is a stunning coming-of-age film featuring debut actress Yle Vianello as Marta. Thirteen-year-old Marta returns to southern Italy with her mother and sister after growing up in Switzerland. As she struggles to fit in with those around her and her own changing body, Marta begins to take catechism classes at her local Catholic Church. She is struck by the seeming hypocrisy of the dispassionate yet ambitious local priest and clashes with her mother, sister and Sunday school teacher Santa as she struggles to define herself.

This is such an excellent film and at times I felt absolutely immersed in this poverty-stricken town in southern Italy.

The viewing experience was certainly enhanced by our home theatre system and high speed internet connection but I was most impressed by the quality of both the image and sound provided by the Curzon On Demand connection. This is more than just a home cinema experience and I am thrilled to be able to access films of this calibre in this manner in future.

And the best part of it all? It is free to sign up to the Curzon On Demand and the films are available from as little as £2!

Corpo Celeste was only released in the UK on 30 March 2012 and only cost £6!

So, who wants to come over to my house and watch an art-house film? I was thinking of watching Melancholia next.

Disclaimer: This is a Sponsored Post but all opinions are my own.

Book Review: Crave by Melissa Darnell

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:54:39 PDT

There is no doubt about it; I am a fan of young adult fiction, preferably of the fantasy romance variety. I can't get enough of vampires, witches, ghosts and demons, and if I like a book, I am usually thrilled to discover that it is part of a series. When you fall in love with characters, like I did with Gena Showalter's Intertwined or Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Take, there is nothing better than to discover that there are more books on the way.

What I’m not so keen on is the experience of rushing towards the end of a book, heart beating against my ribcage as the tension reaches boiling point and then… and then nothing. I understand the use of cliffhangers in books and films but for goodness sake, at least wrap up the storylines in the current installment! It seems to me that young adult authors are increasingly using this technique to end books in arbitrary places (I’m specifically thinking of the House of Night series), without ever really wrapping up the plot in any one book.

It is safe to say that I felt more than a little bit frustrated when I reached the end of Melissa Darnell’s Crave. I even flipped back and forwards through the pages to make sure that I wasn’t mistaken but it does seem that the book just ended, right in the middle of the action. So will I be coming back for more? The answer is yes; despite my frustration, I will certainly be picking up the next book in the series Covet when it is released later this year.

Crave is a paranormal romance told from the point of view of Jacksonville High School students Savannah Colbert and Tristan Coleman. Tristan is a Descendant, a member of the Clann family who hold much of the power in their East Texas town. Once friends with Tristan and other descendants, Savannah was ostracised when they shared a kiss in the fourth grade and banned from being friends with them. As rumours abound about the magical sources of the Clann’s power, Savannah discovers that she is descended from a far deadlier, more ancient family altogether – vampires.

When Savannah is struck by a mysterious illness, she recovers only to find that she is changing. As Savannah comes to terms with her vampire heritage, she and Tristan feel inexplicably drawn to one another. They embark on a forbidden relationship of secret dates, magic and shared dreams, but does Tristan truly care for Savannah or is he only compelled by her? And what will happen to Tristan and Savannah if the Clann or the sinister vampire council discover their relationship?

I thoroughly enjoyed Crave and raced through it in a matter of days. I felt that it was a bit weak in parts with respect to vampire and witch mythology but this certainly picked up in the latter part of the book. In any event, there was sufficient drama between Savannah and the other characters in the book to maintain the pace. All told, my only real complaint was that the book simply ended without any of the main storylines really being wrapped up.

Despite the frustrating ending, I would certainly recommend Crave to fans of paranormal series such as the Vampire Academy, House of Night, Twilight, Intertwined or Soul Screamers series.

Crave is another great book from Harlequin’s MIRA Ink imprint. It is the first book in The Clann series which is currently planned to be a trilogy. You can purchase it at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Article first published as Book Review: Crave by Melissa Darnell on Blogcritics.

An advance, electronic copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

Music Video: Mumford & Sons–“White Blank Page”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:08:00 PDT

Damn, if any song deserves an official music video, then it is “White Blank Page” by Mumford & Sons. I cannot stop listening to this song, it is just incredible. Of course, it would help if the lyrics made any sense whatsoever and you can read about the ongoing storm over the meaning of the lyrics here and here as fans endeavour to interpret the song.

I have to admit, I think there is a very good chance that the lyrics are religious in nature, especially given the passion and intensity with which the band performs the song in this powerful video.

I doubt we’ll ever know what the band intended when they wrote the song (they seem to have kept pretty quiet about it so far) but that first line really resonates with me: “can you lie next to her and give her your heart… as well as your body?” So often we focus on women’s intentions in entering in to relationships but it is rare that anyone ever challenges a man to surrender to his emotions and expose his heart. Actually, that applies to both mean and women, now that I think about it.

I’m not sure that it matters. I listen to this song on repeat without really attaching any meaning to it. I think it is the intensity of conviction and emotion that appeals to me the most, and the fact that it is a superb track.

“White Blank Page” Lyrics
Mumford & Sons
Sigh No More (2009)

Can you lie next to her
And give her your heart, your heart
As well as your body
And can you lie next to her
And confess your love, your love
As well as your folly
And can you kneel before the king
And say I'm clean, I'm clean

Chorus:
But tell me now, where was my fault
In loving you with my whole heart
Oh tell me now, where was my fault
In loving you with my whole heart

A white blank page and a swelling rage, rage
You did not think when you sent me to the brink, the brink
You desired my attention but denied my affections, my affections

Chorus

Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life
Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life

TV Review: Being Human – “The War Child”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:33:37 PDT

How boringly predictable: I did not like the final episode of Being Human. Prior to this episode, I truly believed that the writers and producers of Being Human could do no wrong but after a second viewing of “The War Child”, I’m still not happy with huge parts of the episode.

As a fan, I disliked the manner in which the stories of Annie, Eve and Cutler were wrapped up. I did not like that Hal has become a shadow of a vampire or that Mr Snow dominated the episode despite not featuring in the rest of the season. A couple of scenes didn’t make sense and some just made me sad.

Spoiler Warning: This is not a preview, spoilers throughout.

The Good

Let’s start with what I liked. “The War Child” begins in 2022, ten years after the events of present day. Despite the dystopian outlook of a world overcome by sadistic vampires, you’ll be pleased to know that the official vehicles are properly MOT’d. We don’t get to see Propaganda Hal in this episode but once again, the future closely resembles Nazi Germany (what is it with UK television and Nazi Germany? In the past year, themes of Nazism have featured strongly in Doctor Who, Misfits and now, Being Human).

It is April 11, 2022, and we learn that it is ten years to the day since Mr Snow (Mark Gatiss) killed the Prime Minister on live television. Hey… maybe this whole vampire infestation isn’t so bad after all? I’d pay a lot of money to see that. Moving on swiftly…

As Snow interrogates a human suspect, we learn that there was a human pregnancy embargo shortly after the vampires came into power and that the vampires want the War Child to survive. I quite liked this scene, although I did almost choke on my ice cream when Snow disembowelled the suspect, but Eve escapes and we cut to Hal, Tom and Alex.

Yay! Hal (Damien Molony) survived the werewolf attack at the end of the last episode! Hal and Tom speak about how far they have fallen and how they need to stop the Old Ones.

Hal: “Leo once said we were on the outside of humanity so that we might guard it. He made it sound like a privilege rather than a burden”.
Tom: “I don’t think any of us deserve that job any more”.
Hal: “Then we must earn it back”.

So far, so good. We have a scene where Cutler (Andrew Gower) appears before the Old Ones but nothing he can come up with impresses Snow in the least. Nick Cutler offers Mr Snow the world and instead, he lands up with the greatest humiliation from a main who has laid eyes upon pharaohs and the “Son of a carpenter”.

Mr Snow: “I was planning just to take the world. I didn’t realise I needed you to give it to me”.

Nasty Mr Snow. We learn once and for all that the Old Ones need the War Child to survive, that they are not interested in her demise but her protection.

The Okay

There was a lot of filler in this episode which was my first complaint. The episode felt a little perfunctory to me, as if it was merely a gateway between seasons 4 and 5, out with the old and in with the new and all that jazz.

Annie (Lenora Crichlow) and Alex (Kate Bracken) engage in girl talk, ghost school and baby-protecting while Hal and Tom plot a suicide mission to blow up the vampires.

Alex: “Do vampires die if you blow them up?”
Hal: “Most things die, if you blow them up. Sadly we can’t, you know, what with us not living in a cartoon”.

The Crap

And then… well, then Cutler comes to Honolulu Heights except neither Alex nor Annie will invite him in. But he forces his way into the house as his flesh burns and melts off his body. It is a terrible, terrible ending for such a brilliant character and there is no redemption for Nick Cutler. At the last minute, Annie stakes him and he is gone. That was the point at which I stopped enjoying this episode.

I always say that I don’t like it when really shitty things happen to the characters I love but after Cutler’s performance last week and his contribution to the season, that was a really unfitting end. It is strange as I didn’t like Cutler in the first episode “Eve of the War” but I grew to love him. Even if I take that fondness out of the equation, I still think the writers could have given him a more noble death and certainly allowed him a modicum of redemption.

You see, that is the problem when writers write so well that we fall in love with their characters. Killing them off is one thing, but doing it in a confusing mess of an episode is just wrong.

The Not All That Bad

There were certainly great moments in the remainder of the episode. As gory and gratuitous as it was, I loved the scene where Alex and Hal find Alex’s body, crawling with maggots and in advanced rigor. I loved that Alex totally calls Hal out for licking the congealed blood off the floor and Hal’s remark that it has been a long 500 years.

I loved meeting Mr Rook (Steven Robertson) and the Cleaners and I just know they’ll play a massive part in season 5 of Being Human (which was announced on the Being Human blog, Facebook page and Twitter stream last night).

I loved the look of vampire-friendly werewolf Milo (Michael Wildman) but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what his purpose was.

The Truly Disappointing (and Not Entirely Logical) Ending

Mr Snow: “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”.

Hal returns to the cafeteria to find Mr Snow waiting for him. We learn that Hal has oscillated repeatedly between good and bad and that each time he fell, it was exponentially worse. Hal thinks Snow is tempting him but Snow says Hal is already on their side. He always knew where Hal was over the years.

Mr Snow: “Oh Hal, you weren’t hiding. I was just giving you the afternoon off”.

Snow won’t tell Hal to join him. He knows he has him already and he informs him that they are here to rescue him. [Note: the importance of Mr Snow telling Hal to do anything is that Hal will thereby be compelled to obey him. Mr Snow is that powerful and has that much of a hold over Hal].

And then… and then it is the closing scenes with Mr Snow and the Old Ones. I don’t get it. After a second viewing, I still don’t understand why Tom (Michael Socha) took Eve to the Old Ones or why he decided to act alone, without Annie or Hal. I know the events that lead up to it but I don’t get his decision at all. It just felt as if the plot had been written from all sides but then they got to that one point in time, the point at which Eve lands in the hands of the Old Ones, and they ran out of thread to tie it all up.

The story around it seemed to work. I understood Hal arriving with explosives and that his will was broken under Mr Snow’s command and I really loved Bad Wolf Annie blasting in and demanding that they give her “my f**king baby”.

Remember what I said about the compelling hold of Mr Snow’s commands on Hal? I hated (yes, I know it is a strong word, let me emphasise it), hated that the writers crapped all over their own canon and that Hal was able to break Mr Snow’s hold so easily once Annie burst in. The first rule of canon is that you do not break your own rules!

The writers actually need to think hard about where they are going with Hal’s character. Hal simply wasn't his normal awesome self in this episode, except for the Hallibal Lector sequence at the end. The allure of the ‘human’ vampire is that he walks a fine line between his darkness and his love of the human race. I just think they need to come up with new and inventive ways for Hal to court his darkness.

I really wasn’t happy with Cutler’s demise but Annie’s end filled me with equal dismay and did anyone else notice that they killed the baby? Let’s be clear, I am not unhappy that Lenora Crichlow is leaving the series and I agree, it would be hard for Annie to top saving the world. I get all of that now but my immediate response was far less charitable.

My initial reaction was that I didn't like the idea that Alex was being set up as the new ghost and I felt for the first time ever that Being Human had steered wrong. It seemed to me the writers and production team have begun to doubt themselves, that they are trying to compete with the US version by bringing in new, funky, young characters.

I also noted that the series was co-produced with BBC America. You can never please both side of the Atlantic. Best the producers remember whose TV License pays for their show!

So yes, not impressed by the final episode but looking forward to the fifth season of Being Human nevertheless.

Promo stills © BBC / Touchpaper - Photographer: Huw John

TV Review: Merlin – “The Sword in the Stone (part 1)”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:57:42 PDT

There is nothing more cruel than a two-part season finale and the penultimate episode of the fourth season of Merlin is perhaps the most cruel of all. There is non-stop action from the very first minute and it ends at the worst possible time.

The kingdom of Camelot is under attack as Agravaine (Nathaniel Parker) lets Morgana in along with Helios and his massive army. There are breathtaking battle scenes and slow motion sword fights as the knights of Camelot valiantly defend the kingdom against the attackers.

At last, King Arthur (Bradley James) recognises Agravaine for the traitor he is but Merlin is there at his side as always to offer his support and protection. And he certainly needs protection for Camelot falls and soon Arthur, Merlin, Gaius and Sir Gwaine (Eoin Macken) are surrounded by enemy forces and seemingly trapped.

It is a frustrating episode, that is for sure. There were so many times that I was screaming at the television for Merlin to use his magic. Surely he could have brought down the whole army with his power? Then again, the episode would have ended in ten minutes in that case and we wouldn’t have experienced the awesomeness over the next two episodes. Moving on swiftly then…

If ever there was a time for Arthur to be brave and fearless, this is not it. So Merlin does what any best friend would do – he enchants Arthur and removes his will, forcing him to leave Camelot with him while Gwaine and Gaius remain behind. Agravaine leaves Camelot in pursuit of them.

Camelot is burning and Morgana’s first call of duty when she usurps the throne is to burn the people’s crops. Sirs Percival (Tom Hopper) and Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun) are soon captured and join Gaius and Gwaine in the dungeons of the castle.

Amidst the pain and chaos surrounding the attack, we have moments of sheer hilarity as Arthur dons the clothes of a villager and follows Merlin around like a puppy. Those of us who have watched Arthur abuse Merlin since the first season have been waiting for the tables to turn and Arthur is positively lovely without his will!

Arthur and Merlin soon meet up with a band of smugglers and finally, at the end of the fourth season of Merlin, we catch up with the fabled lovers Tristan (Ben Daniels, Law and Order UK) and Isolde (Miranda Raison).

Theirs was a love that inspired people for over a centuries and never were two people more in love. Of course, that love does not extend to others and certainly not to the King of Camelot. Let’s just say they are not a fan of King Arthur so Merlin works hard to conceal his identity as he begs passage with the smugglers.

Back in Camelot, Morgana taunts and humiliates Sir Gwain while Gaius lies in serious ill-health. Agravaine is slowly realising that he means nothing to Morgana as she plays him against Helios. Oh, she is an arrogant little witch!

Soon, Merlin’s spell on Arthur wears off and no sooner is he back to his old self when the camp is attacked leaving Arthur, Merlin, Tristan and Isolde to flee.

As the net closes in on our heroes, they head into Merlin’s home village where they meet Merlin’s mother and find that Gwen has been hiding there too. As Gwen tends to a wounded Arthur, Agravaine tracks them down and…

See what I mean? That has to be the most cruel of all timings and I couldn’t believe it when the episode ended there.

Apart from my desire to see Merlin use his magic more, I don’t really think there was time for me to form much of an opinion of “The Sword in the Stone (part 1)”. It was one of the most exciting episodes of Merlin ever and left me gagging for more when the episode finished but I can’t really say what I liked or disliked until I can comment on how things are resolved in the next episode.

Just one more week then!

Book Review: Putting Alice Back Together by Carol Marinelli

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:01:36 PDT

Alice Jameson had everything going for her: a glamorous job running classifieds at the local paper, a crush on her gay best friend, and a handy little habit of mixing alcohol and diazepam. Oh, and there is the small matter of that mountain of credit card debt that she can't afford to pay off. It is little surprise then when she begins to experience panic attacks but is there something deeper at play here?

At first glance, Carol Marinelli's latest novel Putting Alice Back Together seems like a typical chick-lit book with lots of alcohol, random sex and a protagonist heading for a nervous breakdown. But just below the surface is a far deeper tale about redemption and self-acceptance after a lifetime of family secrets, sexual abuse, loss and addiction.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about Alice's first sexual encounters and the ensuing sequence of events that prompted her to leave England at the age of 17. Set in Melbourne, Australia, Putting Alice Back Together begins when Alice experiences a series of panic attacks, seemingly brought about by the return of her best friend to England. In a haze of Valium and alcohol, Alice storms into a relationship with Hugh and begins therapy. As she begins to confront her past, Alice’s world begins to crash down around her when decade-long secrets rise to the surface and shatter her composure.

Putting Alice Back Together is quite a page turner but it was not what I expected. I expected something light and shallow but this book is quite devastating in places.

What I most appreciated about the book was that Alice really developed as a character. Written in the first person, I found Alice quite ignorant and almost offensive in the opening chapters as she attacked the people around her on the basis of their physical attributes or sexual preferences.

I am happy to say that the character (and by extension, the author) was certainly redeemed by the end of the book. Carol Marinelli avoids the temptation to wrap up the story with a neat ending and there are no quick and easy moral lessons to be learned here. If anything, Alice gains an appreciation for the complexities of relationships and life experiences.

With themes of sexual abuse and drug use, this book is recommended for adult readers only. I really enjoyed this book and found it quite difficult to put down. I would recommend it for fans of Carol Marinelli and other romance authors. Putting Alice Back Together is published by Mira Books and is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

I give Putting Alice Back Together 3.5 stars out of 5.

Article first published as Book Review: Putting Alice Back Together by Carol Marinelli on Blogcritics.

An advance, electronic copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

TV review: Being Human - "Making History"

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:57:40 PDT

It’s been hours since I watched “Making History” yet still I cannot stop thinking about it. The penultimate episode in the fourth season of BBC Being Human, “Making History” is terrifying and horrific. It was the kind of television that has the viewer hiding behind the sofa or, if you’re mature like me, barely peeking out at the television from behind the safety of a cushion.

There was a moment, towards the end, when I was so appalled that it must have been written all over my face. My other half walked in and asked if I was okay and it was all I could do to gasp out a pained, “no!” It was certainly difficult to speak or breathe; I believe I might have held my breath for the last 15 minutes of the episode. Even now I cannot draw enough air into my lungs as I think back on the episode.

“The History Maker” follows five deeply intertwined storylines and it won’t be possible to discuss any of it without giving away massive spoilers, especially for events that take place 30 years into the future. So here it is:

Massive Spoiler Warning: Do not read further unless you’ve seen “Making History”

Cutler is made

1950. Nick Cutler (Andrew Gower) is an ambitious young solicitor but even he can't get the slimy, corrupt mobster Hal Yorke out of the mess he finds himself in. Unless it is just a matter of motivation? Well, Hal (Damien Molony) turns Cutler into a vampire just in case and suddenly he is motivated enough and Hal is released from prison. Result. Well, for Hal at least because things are about to take a very bad turn for Nick Cutler.

Bugsy Halone: "All We require is everything"

Indeed, Hal requires everything, especially Cutler's mercy and his last vestige of humanity. And if Cutler can't do it and cut all ties to his former life, foregoing mercy for a crystal glass of blood, then Hal will do it for him. Wow, I wonder if that decision will ever come back to haunt Hal? May I just say that scary Hal is also pretty awesome? In a terrible sense, of course.

Eve and Annie

Oh Annie, didn’t your parents ever tell you never to trust strangers? Especially creepy Future Girl strangers claiming to be your infant daughter? Well, it is true. The Woman is in fact the ghost of Eve (or so she says), and she has travelled back in time following her death in 2037. What disturbs me is that nothing good has ever come of Annie (Lenora Crichlow) entering the Other Side and she ought to be far more careful than that!

The Woman (Gina Bramhill) takes Annie to the future and gives her a blow-by-blow account of the evil that transpires when the vampires take over the world (which is about to happen in a couple of days). Mass murder, internment camps, worldwide domination and Hal as pure evil.

Internment camp sign: “Through me you pass into eternal pain”

She tells Annie of the fall of Tom and his devastation following an attack on humans.

Cutler and Tom

It seems like a throwaway remark. Surely the Tom (Michael Socha) we know would never hurt humans, would never put himself in that position? For much of the episode it certainly seems that way. Cutler tries to convince Tom that he needs to kill the Old Ones, that vampires are the embodiment of evil.

But Tom refuses to believe it. He dons a sorbet orange dress shirt (ultimately paired with a stylish, blood red tie) and explains his case to Cutler. He wants to negotiate with the Old Ones; after all, Cutler is good and Hal is his friend, right?

I wonder what Cutler could do to convince him otherwise?

Cutler and Hal

Well, this is “Making History” of course and Cutler decides to make a little bit of history himself. Hal made history when he forced Cutler’s hand and the events in 2037 (or even days from now) have already occurred. So Cutler draws Hal in and appeals to his greatest weakness: blood. Hal, when he’s off the wagon, is a very scary vampire indeed. Despite his best efforts to fight it, he descends first into madness before going into withdrawal and finally gives in and returns for more.

Cutler has Hal right where he wants him, almost. Tom no longer trusts him as Hal becomes a slave to blood once again. Fifty-five years he was clean, fifty-five years of walking a fine line between obsession and madness. Cutler suspects that Hal might have a slight affliction of mercy and decides to remedy him of it.

Hal and Alex

I warned you there were spoilers in this post, right? No really: there are huge, massive, spoilery spoilers! Stop reading if you’ve not seen the episode because it got pretty hectic there for a while and I need to talk about it.

It is no secret that I don’t like Alex. I mean, sure, Kate Bracken is a fantastic actress with an accent to die for and Alex is a really interesting character with quick wit, intelligence and overall likeability but I’m not too keen on Hal having any love interests at all. And yes, that has nothing to do with Hal’s diabolical flirting skills and everything to do with jealousy.

Moving on swiftly. As soon as I realised what Hal had done to Cutler’s wife (and I figured it out pretty early in the episode), I knew that he was going to hurt Alex. I just didn’t expect it to be quite as gruesome or graphic as it was and it really was horrible.

Of course, Cutler expects Hal to forsake his humanity as he forsook his own in 1950 but Hal is not quite there yet. In the midst of all the horror, there was some truly spectacular acting from Andrew Gower when Hal realises what Cutler has planned and pleads with him:

Hal: “Don’t do this. Please”.
Cutler (disbelieving): “Sorry, what?”
Hal (kneeling): “I’ll do anything. Just stop this”.
Cutler (incredulous): “What’re you doing? [Laughs]. Oh God. Are you begging? Now you stop, seriously, it’s horrid”.
Hal: “Please. Cutler. Nick”.
Cutler (nervous laughter): “Now he’s calling me Nick [really freaking horrible giggle]. You can’t do this, you… You’re Hal Yorke! I’m gonna heave”.
Hal: “Remember what you were”.
Cutler (grabs Hal by his shirt): “What I was? Now you stole that from me! Now you dragged me into this world! You killed my wife, you turned me into a murderer, an addict. You made me abandon my whole species!”

And then, when Cutler refuses Hal’s apology, telling him he does not get to say he is sorry, Hal’s humanity shines through once and for all and we realise that he is not going back. He will not become the vampire that takes humanity down in the future (or so we hope). It is beyond moving.

Hal: “I can’t let this happen, Cutler. I will kill you if I have to but I will not let you take their world”.

Swoon.

We always knew that nothing would be resolved in this, the penultimate episode of the season but the final 18 minutes of the episode were incredible. The Woman explains her reason for appearing to Annie, Tom turns on the full moon and is set loose in a crowded nightclub and a new ghost enters the fray.

My heart was pounding out of my chest by the end of episode and we are left uncertain as to whether Hal has survived the events.

In the final sequence, the Old Ones finally arrive and who better to lead them than the esteemed Mark Gatiss? Oh, I think he will make a positively horrible nemesis.

I’m usually eager for the weeks to rush by in between my Being Human fix but I’d like this week to slow down! I don’t want to say goodbye to this fantastic show for another year!

The final episode “The War Child” will air this Sunday at 9pm on BBC Three. Make sure you turn your clocks forward properly!

All images © BBC / Touchpaper - Photographer: Huw John

TV Review: Merlin – “The Hunter’s Heart”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:23:18 PDT

Finally. For weeks I have despaired at the hackneyed plans and constant attempts at sabotage on the part of our feckless foes Morgana and Lord Agravaine. It seemed that for the longest time, both were satisfied to wreak havoc for the sake of it and they haven’t had a good plot for weeks on end.

Well, there was a point in this latest episode, “The Hunters Heart” where I considered that perhaps I had been too harsh in my judgement over the past episodes because I was enjoying it so much. After all, my opinions had ranged from hoping Morgana and Agravaine would just die to wishing they had better plots and scripts to work from. I soon realised that I was simply pleased because they had a half decent storyline.

“The Hunters Heart” opens with Gwen (Angel Coulby) draped in the same sack cloth that she was exiled in, toiling away in a pig pen in an unnamed village. The village is suddenly set upon by bandits but instead of killing her, their leader Helios (Terence Maynard, Young Dracula) takes her in to be part of his harem.

Meanwhile, King Arthur (Bradley James) calls his court to order in the council chamber. He announces that as part of a peaceful negotiation with the neighbouring kingdom of Nemeth over Camelot’s disputed claim to the lands of Gedref, he is to be united in marriage to Her Royal Highness, Princess Mithian.

Merlin (Colin Morgan) can barely contain himself and he challenges Arthur, telling him it is too soon. It was particularly ill-advised as Arthur had just mentioned the pain he suffered at Gwen’s betrayal. As Arthur turns to leave, he calls after him:

Merlin: “Except that you still love her.”

It does not go down well. Arthur can barely believe that Merlin has challenged him and this is a particularly sore point with Arthur.

Arthur: “You ever say anything like that again and I swear you'll join her in exile forever”.

You know, it is possibly time that Merlin learns some boundaries and that is a prominent theme in this episode as Merlin learns that no matter the importance of destiny and Arthur’s fate, none of it means anything unless Arthur enters that position based on his own choices and actions.

With the impending union of the kingdoms of Nemeth and Camelot comes the danger that Camelot will become increasingly strong and powerful. This is not an outcome that Morgana can allow as it will endanger her own claim to the throne. To this end, she has tasked Agravaine with obtaining the plans for the siege tunnels so that she can invade Camelot with her own army and take down the kingdom once and for all.

See? I told you it was a reasonable plot! For his part, Agravaine employs the mapmaker’s apprentice Eoghan (Tom Meredith) to steal the plans, murdering him when he fails. In a stroke of genius, he frames the dead boy for the theft anyway and gains access to the vaults himself when Arthur allows him to perform a complete inventory.

Princess Mithian arrives and she is far more lovely than we could ever have expected. She is witty and intelligent, yet gentle and modest. Arthur is quite taken with the lovely princess and even Merlin comes to realise that she is not an enemy here. Janet Montgomery (Human Target) plays Mithian and I absolutely loved her accent.

Spoiler Warning: Stop here if you haven’t watched Merlin – “The Hunter’s Heart”

Back in the lair of Helios and his army, Morgana comes to visit and Gwen perches on a rock and eavesdrops as Morgana plots with Helios to invade Camelot through the siege tunnels. The rock breaks under Gwen’s weight and Morgana and Helios know that they have been spied upon. Gwen takes off into the woods, knowing that she must warn Arthur at all costs. Morgana soon realises that Helios had Guinevere in his custody and she insists that they follow her. They search most of the day and the night but it seems that Gwen has evaded them for now.

In Camelot, things are looking very cosy between Mithian and Arthur and they head off on a hunt. Merlin makes his views on hunting quite clear but hey, killing defenceless animals is just sport, right? In another moment of plot genius, Morgana finally catches up with with, enchants her and turns her into a deer, putting her right in harm’s way of being shot at by the hunters.

Merlin certainly sees through the enchantment and recognises Gwen beneath the magic, using sorcery to deflect Arthur’s arrow. Mithian’s shot hits target though but at that point, Arthur discovers Gwen’s necklace and her betrothal ring. It is unlikely that he quite understands what has happened here or that he recognises Gwen but he calls off the hunt and shuns Mithian.

There are some great performances in this episode, especially from Bradley James as Arthur comes to terms with his confusion and anger over the betrayal and his lingering feelings for Gwen. I do think that Merlin overstepped his boundaries in this episode but once again, Colin Morgan gave a fine performance and I loved the scenes where he healed Gwen and counselled Arthur.

Janet Montgomery was delightful as Mithian and I look forward to seeing Terence Maynard reprise his role as Helios in the final two episodes of the season.

Most of all, I’m just really glad that Morgana and Agravaine have come up with a half decent plan to invade the palace and I look forward to the final story of the season, “The Sword in the Stone”. I think the next story arc is going to be incredible and will see Merlin crashing straight into Arthurian legend with the appearance of Tristan and Isolde, the famous sword in the stone and (hopefully) the return of magic to the kingdom of Camelot.

TV Review: Being Human – “Puppy Love”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:21:00 PDT

It seem the unthinkable has happened. There is an episode of my beloved Being Human and I don’t really care for it. “Puppy Love” is full of love and tenderness and not exactly my cup of tea when I’m in the midst of exams, work stress and job interviews. Then again, it is entirely possible that it is plain old jealousy because this is the episode where Hal gets a (shudder) girlfriend.

Alex (Kate Bracken) is smarmy and self-assured and is in Barry on holiday with her family. For some inexplicable reason, Hal’s diabolical flirting skills don’t send her packing and she insists on chatting him up. Then again, her flirting abilities are pretty dire too but I’m way ahead of myself. Alex only arrives half way through the episode. Back to the beginning then.

Alex is not the only lunatic in town. (Note: the use of the term ‘lunatic’ here is perfectly acceptable as werewolves do, in fact, react to lunar phases). There is a teenage werewolf on the prowl who makes Adam ("Hold the Front Page") look demure and Kirby ("A Spectre Calls") fashionable. Allison (Ellie Kendrick) has decided that Barry is the place to be as she seeks the werewolf made famous when Cutler released the video of Tom and George changing. Of course, it is a massive surprise when Tom falls made in love with her.

Oh Cutler, we knew there were going to be repercussions when he released that video on YouTube but did it have to hail the arrive of yet another creeptastic character? I’m just kidding. I kind of liked Allison even though I was too grumpy to appreciate the blossoming relationship between her and Tom.

Well, you reap what you sow because Cutler's antics manage to draw the attention of some pretty hardcore vampire attention in the form of Golda (Amanda Abbington) and her henchmen. Golda is from UK operations and is in town to take over from Cutler following Griffin’s demise. She learns that there is a werewolf on the loose and decides to have a little fun.

Golda: “Cage, human, Prosecco”

Meanwhile, back at Honolulu Heights, Annie accidentally kills a man (as you do when someone knocks on your door) and is stuck with the ghost of her lecherous neighbour Emrys (Anthony O'Donnell). She tries everything in her power to assist him in sorting out his unfinished business but is just about to learn that a ghost’s last business might not exactly be ethical in nature.

In amongst all of this love and anti-love, Cutler (Andrew Gower) decides to tell a couple of porky pies to Allison and Tom about the source of the online video. It doesn’t matter what he actually tells them (spoilers) but this exchange was hilarious:

Cutler: “…there’s not much I can do on my own but if you, Tom McNair, vampire slayer, could get involved…”
Allison (interrupts): "Vampire slayer! How many vampires have you... slain?"
Tom: "Oooh, err, three or four... dozen"
Allison (to Cutler): "And you're condoning this?"
Cutler: "Well, you can't exactly go to Ofcom"

Now there is a little known fact about the hit BBC show Being Human and that is that it is, in fact, supposed to be a horror show. Well, nothing is more terrifying than Hal’s singing and this time it is 1970s soul. Aargh, my ears are bleeding! Again! And then we are back at the beginning and Alex walks into Hal’s life and breaks my heart.

How horrifically cute is that?

Fantastic wit and humour aside, there is nothing wrong with “Puppy Love”. It was funny, cute and entertaining but every now and then I do miss the darkness and drama of the previous two seasons. There is an underlying darkness to Hal that we haven’t even begun to explore and I would love to see him lose control (Kia-Ora anyone?)

Hal: “I have seduced several thousand women in my time!”

We might laugh at this fastidious, rigid vampire and his attempts to assert himself when teased by Tom and Allison but beneath the surface is an ancient being, an Old One, who demands due respect and is only barely maintaining control.

Spoiler alert: spoiler ahead

And can I just say this, I knew the woman from the future (Gina Bramhill) was Eve. I knew it!! I cannot believe there are only two episodes left. I really do think that the seasons should be longer (although that absolutely killed Torchwood last season so I should be careful what I wish for).

I cannot wait for “Making History” next week which will see Cutler take Tom under his wing and Annie visiting purgatory.

All images © BBC / Touchpaper - Photographer: Huw John

TV Review: Merlin – “A Herald of the New Age”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:30:10 PDT

With just three more story arcs to go, we are hurtling towards the end of the fourth season of Merlin. At first glance, "A Herald of the New Age" seems to be yet another filler episode, although this season of Merlin has been plagued with relatively few of those. The significance of this episode lies in its title and marks it as a significant turning point in Arthur's reign and the coming age. There are some incredible performances from Colin Morgan (no surprises there) and Bradley James as they encounter evidence of an unimaginable horror. There is a twist too and Arthur prepares to pay a terrible price.

While out on a patrol, King Arthur, Merlin and the knights of Camelot wander upon an old Druid shrine. Merlin immediately senses that the shrine is cursed and warns the knights against touching or disturbing any part of the shrine.

Arthur appears to be deeply moved, troubled even, and calls the knights away.

King Arthur: "There's nothing here for us. Move out".

Sir Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun) remains behind, takes a look around and drinks from a well. As he does, he disturbs the spirit of the young boy (Nicholas Croucher) for whom the shrine was built. The Druids often built shrines for restless or troubled spirits and this boy is particularly so.

It doesn’t take long for the boy to begin haunting Sir Elyan as he appears to him in dreams and while waking. He begins to influence Elyan and eventually makes his business known: he requires of Sir Elyan that he must avenge his death and the ruthless slaughter of all of his kin by the King of Camelot.

Sir Elyan: “What do you want from me?”
Young Druid Boy: “I want you to bring me peace; you must right the wrong that was done to me”.
Sir Elyan: “How? What should I do?”
Young Druid Boy: “It's easy. You must kill the king”.

And so Sir Elyan embarks on a quest to kill Arthur and Agravaine (Nathaniel Parker) is only too quick to jump at the chance to sow more seeds of discontent and disrupt Arthur’s inner circle. Will Gaius and Merlin get to the bottom of this curse before Elyan is put to death for treason?

Spoiler Warning: Do not read further if you have not watched “A Herald of the New Age”.

There were two aspects of this episode that I wasn’t too keen on. The first is Agravaine. He has to be one of the weakest, most poorly written villains in television history and I have long been bored of his pointless, relentless efforts to sabotage Arthur’s court just for the sake of it.

Of course, it could be a lot worse. Not every magical threat or event this season has been introduced by Agravaine and Morgana. A lot of the time it has just been rather lucky and coincidental and they have benefitted from circumstances like the parasites that they are. I just wish that Agravaine wasn’t such a snivelling sycophant (both as he appears to Arthur and as he really is to Morgana). Given what poor Nathaniel Parker has had to work with this season, he has done remarkably well but I honestly think they could have done just as well to leave out this role entirely.

My second gripe has to do with Guinevere. Her departure is assumed to be the reason for both Sir Elyan’s strange turn and Arthur’s despondency but it is a little ambiguous and certainly isn’t the reason behind Sir Elyan’s actions. Does this mean that life just carried on without her? That Arthur and Elyan weren’t devastated? Because that really isn’t cool. I’ll give Arthur the benefit of the doubt and assume that this really was about Gwen and not his guilt:

Merlin: “Is this about Gwen? We all miss her. You more than anyone”
Arthur: “You can go now”.
Merlin: “Arthur…”
Arthur: “Get out!”

But oh, how the rest of the episode makes up for those two points! How easy was it to think that Arthur was innocent in all of this? That the Young Druid Boy wanted to make him pay for something his father had done? How surprising was it to hear that Arthur himself had been behind the attack on the Druids?

Arthur: “I am responsible for what happened to you and for all the violence that happened here. When I led the attack on your camp, I was young and inexperienced. I was desperate to prove myself to my men, to my father”.

With that confession, Arthur does more than face up to his past crimes, weaknesses and his desire to please his father. I believe it is a turning point, the herald of the new age. The point at which he must realise that in all the times he has suffered because of magic, he must surely have been the aggressor in the majority of them.

And in that moment, he promises to treat the Druid people with respect from that moment on.

Arthur: “I can still hear the screams, I cannot right this wrong. Nothing I can ever do will change the horrors that happened that day, but I can promise that, now that I am king, I will do everything that I can to prevent anything like this ever happening again. From this day forth, the Druid people will be treated with the respect they deserve, I give you my word. I am truly sorry for what happened to you”.

Bradley James was incredible in this episode. His acting was superb and my heart almost stopped during this scene. King Arthur truly thought he was going to die, that he was making the ultimate sacrifice and James portrayed that to perfection.

There was the moment too, when Merlin enters the shrine and peers into the well, witnessing all that transpired during the massacre and tears come flowing down his cheeks. That was an exceptional scene and I have to say that I cannot wait to see what these two actors have in store for us next season.

Book Review: The Infernal Republic by Marshall Moore

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:25:53 PST

I really don't like short story collections. I don't like the fragmented stories that seem to go nowhere and then end abruptly. When reading a collection of short stories, I find myself abandoning stories half way through or skipping others entirely, and I usually cannot wait to get the collection over and done with.

A strange way to begin a review of a short story collection, I know, but bear with me because there is actually a point to this. Never before have I picked up a collection of short stories, read it from beginning to end, and been captivated by each and every story. I’ve certainly not been this impressed with a collection before and desperately wished to read more of the author’s short stories.

Then again, I've never read anything quite like Marshall Moore's The Infernal Republic before. I could say this collection of 17 stories took me completely by surprise but I was warned. The synopsis from the publisher said that “The Infernal Republic is Moore at his best: surreal, hilarious, wise, brutal, and sometimes just plain wrong”. Indeed, this collection covers everything from existentialism and suicide to the bizarre, absurd and surreal.

Marshall Moore hails from South Carolina but currently resides in Hong Kong. He describes himself as “a kid in the 70s and a teen in the 80s, which puts me squarely in Generation X”. Indeed, Moore’s work contains many of the hallmarks of Generation X authors with themes of disconnection and amorality, and I was reminded on more than one occasion of Bret Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland.

Yet Moore takes those themes one step further. In the opening story, “Urban Reef (or, It’s Hard to Find a Friend in the City)”, the mental disconnect becomes physical and bodies are torn asunder as girlfriends discuss landmine victims over salad, briefly joking about gluing body parts back on before turning their attention to a possible jumper on a nearby rooftop.

“Isn’t it funny how the law tries to prevent you from ending your own life, as if it doesn’t belong to you”.

The stories in this collection range from the plausible to science fiction, but one thing is for sure, the Generation Xers have grown up and they are imposing their issues on their children. Many of the stories touch on self-absorbed, amoral and disconnected parents and the absolute damage that they are wreaking on their children.

Suicide and body parts come up again in “Flesh, Blood, and Some of the Parts (Le sang du monde)” when a genetically engineered, modular teenager is prevented from taking his own life by the removal of his arms and legs. Because it is fine to mail order a tailor-made child, but how dare that child develop free will and consider suicide? It was scary how closely this fantastical story resembled the reality of terminally spoiled, over-medicated children in present day society.

In “Marble Forest, Karstic Heart” a boy avoids sleep for months on end, knowing he will cease to exist should he fall asleep, and it is all down to the selfish choices his parents have made.

Random but apparently justifiable homicide is a recurring theme in the book and I quite enjoyed stories such as “215” (featuring a homicidal house), “Toast, Belladonna, and the Heat Death of the Universe” (where it is perfectly reasonable to dine with one’s ex-spouse before murdering them), and “In the North Woods (or, The War of Art)” (in which children are crystallised and preserved in the name of art).

“Filth and Splendor: A Love Story” is a pretty awesome yet equally sick superhero story featuring some rather detailed descriptions of unwanted body functions and excretions. This story was an obvious example but there were several occasions while I was reading the book when I had to reread a passage, thinking to myself that I could not believe the author had actually gone there.

There are no lines that Moore is unwilling to cross, as evidenced by the penultimate story of obsession, violation and depravity. “Certain Shades of Blue Look Green, Depending on the Light” is interesting because it makes you check your assumptions. Was Sanjay’s action more acceptable before we realise it is a case of mistaken identity?

My favourite of all the stories was “Town of Thorns” which takes a look at how partners Michael and Wade cope after Michael is the victim of a homophobic hate crime. This story is tender and erotic in parts yet ultimately realistic in terms of the damage the crime does to both Michael’s brain and demeanour and to their relationship.

The Infernal Republic is certainly recommended for readers aged 18 and over as there are some graphic and explicit passages in the book. I really enjoyed it and appreciated the somewhat damning commentary on post-Generation X society. The stories take place in locations around the world including Hong Kong, Amsterdam and San Francisco and together with the mix of stories both realistic and bizarre, The Infernal Republic makes for a really engaging collection of stories.

The Infernal Republic is available at both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. It is published by Signal 8 Press, the publishing company that Moore founded in Hong Kong. Marshall Moore hopes to release his new novel Bitter Orange in 2013.

I give The Infernal Republic five out of five stars.

Article written by me and first published as Book Review: The Infernal Republic by Marshall Moore on Blogcritics.

An advance, electronic copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

TV Review: Being Human – “Hold the Front Page”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:15:52 PST

Four episodes down, four left to go in the fourth season of Being Human. Am I the only one who feels cheated by these ridiculously short seasons? If I had my way, programmes like Being Human, Misfits, Doctor Who, Sherlock and Merlin would never be allowed to go on hiatus at all but I digress…

“Hold the Front Page” takes us back six months before the start of the season. We’re at St Hilda’s School for Girls and our favourite teenage vampire Adam (Craig Roberts) is disturbed just as he is about to devour a rather horsey and incredibly clueless young schoolgirl. We first met Adam last season and he had a starring role in the short web series Becoming Human which is highly recommended for Being Human fans.

Back at Honolulu Heights, Hal is (oh my gosh, my freaking ears are bleeding)… Hal is singing, I think. Make him stop! Adam comes banging on the front door, causing Hal and Tom significant alarm as they have never met him before. Annie assures them that all is fine:

Annie: “It’s definitely not the nemesis, he’s way too much of a knob for that”

Adam and schoolmistress lover Yvonne (Selina Griffiths) have arrived on their doorstep in a bid to escape the press who are having a field day with the fact that Yvonne is a “saucy schoolmistress” who has seduced a student. Despite that, she is eerily prim and proper.

Yvonne: “But never let it be said that Yvonne Bradshaw isn’t open-minded. Our head of French is a member of Amnesty, so I know the drill”.

Oh, ho! Yvonne Bradshaw is about to face a lot more than pesky members of left-wing justice movements. It soon becomes abundantly clear that she has no idea of who or what Adam is, never mind Tom and Annie. But then again, she has no idea what she is either and can I just mention that I knew exactly what she was the minute she was able to see Annie and she enchanted Tom. Succubus!

We cut to the woods and just what exactly is Cutler (Andrew Gower) up to this time? I’ve certainly grown to like him since the first episode but I really do not trust him.

“Hold the Front Page” is a pretty cool episode with some fantastic performances from Selina Griffiths and Craig Roberts. I loved Adam’s besotted state and his inexplicable love for the plain and old-fashioned Yvonne. I love how possessive he is of her and the way that Tom (Michael Socha) begins to vie for her attention.

I also enjoyed the introduction of reporter Pete Travis (Sacha Dhawan) and his startling discovery (although I didn’t think his previous experience with vampires was particularly well-scripted).

What I didn’t like was that frumpy schoolmarm seducing my Hal (Damien Molony)! It made me want to break her freaking neck! Get your hands of him, woman! Oh my, oh my. It is ever so slightly possible that I have discovered my latest fangirl obsession. All I can say is that thank goodness that little scene ended the way it did, because I did not like where the plot was going!

Back to Cutler and his relationship with Pete. It is really apt that a vampire as slimy and smooth as Cutler would be a solicitor and as the episode progressed, I realised that he is becoming one of my favourite nemeses ever. I just love how much he reminds me of a disingenuous City cad. It is shocking how naive Pete is and he really should have thought twice before messing with someone like Cutler.

For just a moment, it seems that Pete has the upper hand when he traps Cutler in a hotel room and outs him as a vampire. We know that Annie (Lenora Crichlow) and Hal are on the way to the hotel but will they get there in time?

Sadly, I’m not going to spoil this fantastic ending for you but I will leave you with three bites.

Annie: “Oh, Adam, little twat, I’m really going to miss him”.

If I thought listening to Hal sing was painful at the beginning of the episode, that was nothing to my eyeballs bleeding when he (shudders) smiled at the end of the episode! I haven’t seen such a chillingly wrong smile since Wednesday in the Addams Family. Please, Hal, for the love of all that is good and sacred in the world, please don’t ever smile again!

And finally: oh, Cutler. What have you done?

Can I just say how disappointed I am with Damien Molony? Before last night’s episode, he went on to Twitter and promised us more press ups. He also warned us about his singing.

You might remember the glorious scene in "A Spectre Calls" where Hal does one hundred press ups, shirtless. Sigh. Well, not only was the scene in question omitted in the final cut, it also didn’t quite deliver on its promise (apologies to non-UK readers, you won’t be able to see this):

Being Human’s strongest point has always been its skill in blending comedy, horror and drama but this season is perhaps the funniest yet. The second and third seasons got pretty dark with the Box Tunnel Twenty massacre, the experiments, Annie’s expulsion, the wolf-shaped bullet prophecy and the death of Mitchell. There s no doubt that this season will get dark but it is a lot of fun at the moment.

I have to admit that while I loved Russell Tovey and Aidan Turner with all my heart and soul, I am not missing them one tiny bit. I am loving the dynamic between Lenora Crichlow, Michael Socha and Damien Molony.

I cannot wait until next week’s “Puppy Love”.

All images © BBC / Touchpaper - Photographer: Huw John

TV Review: Merlin – “Lancelot du Lac”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:49:10 PST

“Arthur is to make Guinevere his queen”. These are the words that Morgana fears more than anything on this earth; her greatest dread is that her vision will come true and Guinevere will sit on the throne that Morgana covets for herself. To what depths will the evil witch descend to prevent King Arthur from making young Guinevere his queen?

Warning: spoilers throughout

Well, it appears there are actually no limits to her depravity as Morgana visits the Dochraid, seeking her counsel on how to wield Morgause’s magical coin to raise a soul from the dead. There is so much emphasis put on the destiny of King Arthur and Merlin but it seems that we underestimate the role that Morgana herself will play.

The Dochraid: “Morgana Pendragon, you are destined to bring back the old ways. I hope to live to see that day”.

Morgana will indeed bring magic back to Camelot, but at what cost? Morgana travels to the pool of Nemhain and tosses the coin into the black, still waters of the lake. She revives Sir Lancelot who so valiantly sacrificed his life in “The Darkest Hour, part 2”. Is it really the brave and honourable knight, or just a Shade, a mere shadow of his body and soul? We will soon learn that he is the latter.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Arthur surprises Gwen by playfully blindfolding her and leading her into her home which is alight with candles. He kneels before her and we finally hear the words we have been waiting four years for:

Arthur: “Guinevere, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”

It is possibly my favourite Merlin scene of all time. Gwen throws herself into Arthur’s arms, weeping tears of joy while an obviously confused Arthur has to ask whether that is a yes. Of course it is!

But trouble is on the way and it will always be on the way for as long as Morgana pursues her bitter, evil path. For Morgana has brought back Lancelot not to harm King Arthur but to win back Gwen’s heart. Sir Lancelot makes a dramatic re-entrance in Camelot during the celebratory jousting tournament marking the upcoming royal nuptials.

At first he is welcomed back to the fold with open arms; King Arthur and the knights of Camelot are thrilled to have him back and believe his tale of being rescued by the Mudhabi people. Merlin is the first to realise that Lancelot is not all he says he is though. Lancelot was once Merlin’s biggest ally, he knew of Merlin’s magic from the start and never betrayed his secret. But Lancelot does not recognise nor remember Merlin’s abilities.

Merlin: “I've spent so long thinking about what happened, could I have saved you? And if there was anything I could have done, if I could have used magic...”

Sir Lancelot: “If any of us had any magic, Merlin, life would be a lot easier”.

Of course, Guinevere is far too graceful and noble to simply fall into Lancelot’s arms once she has pledged her love for Arthur. She is certainly glad to see Lancelot return but she would never betray her true love. But she is no match for Morgana who enchants a bracelet to reawaken Gwen’s feelings for Lancelot and compel her to fall in love with him. This was never going to end well.

Warning: Spoilers ahead. Do not read if you have not watched the end of “Lancelot du Lac”

There is a lot to love about this episode, especially when Arthur finally proposes to Guinevere. It was also great to finally see the return of Santiago Cabrera in his role as Sir Lancelot.

As uplifting as it was in parts, this was ultimately a tragic episode with some incredibly strong performances from Colin Morgan and Angel Coulby. The scenes where they are dismantling the preparations for the wedding that never happened were really powerful, with Arthur heartbroken and Merlin imploring him to forgive Gwen.

I was on the verge of tears when a confused and blindsided Gwen declared her love for Arthur before he cast her out.

Guinevere: “You mean everything to me Arthur. Once there was Lancelot, a long time ago but I haven't considered him in that way for many years. I thought he was dead, I thought I would never see him again and... and then... when I did, I was overwhelmed. I was drawn to him, I couldn't stop myself, I don't know why. I love you, you mean everything to me.”

It is especially poignant when Merlin releases Lancelot from Morgana’s spell, thus freeing his soul and Lancelot awakes just long enough to truly recognise Merlin and thank him before his true death.

It is interesting to note that the cast and crew of Merlin considered “Lancelot du Lac” to be one of the finest episodes ever recorded but from a fan’s point of view, it is not that simple. I found it heart breaking that Guinevere was prevented, once again, from becoming queen and that it was not that something simply came between her and Arthur. No, once again, Arthur lost his faith in Gwen and was convinced of her guilt.

I hated that she was cast out of Camelot and that she left in rags. I’ve mentioned before that I really don't like it when really crappy things happen to my favourite characters in my favourite shows. It makes me think that if Gwen hadn’t been a mere servant (and a metaphor for all the classism and racism in English society), then Arthur would never have stooped so low as to cast her out in such a manner and the writers wouldn’t have felt so easy about writing it that way either. Why did it have to be Gwen who paid the price?

But on the other hand, Guinevere really was complicit in Arthurian legend when she embarked on an affair with Lancelot du Lac but Merlin is a children’s programme and we were never really going to go there. I just wish that Gwen’s character was not constantly under attack.

As much as I love BBC Merlin, I really wish we’d seen more of Sir Lancelot and Santiago Cabrera in the series. In Arthurian legend, Lancelot was the most skilled, most popular of all the knights and his name is as well known as those of King Arthur and Merlin. He also outlives both King Arthur and Guinevere in the legends. So why did he have such a small part in this series and more importantly, why did the gorgeous Santiago Cabrera not grace our screens for far more time than he was allowed?

There is little we can do about Santiago Cabrera and Sir Lancelot du Lac, as I really do believe he has gone now, but I do hope to see Guinevere catch a break in the next couple of episodes. She deserves so much more than to be cast out in rags.

High resolution stills for Merlin – “Lancelot du Lac”

Interview with Julie Kagawa, author of The Iron Knight

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:56:00 PST

Julie Kagawa recently wrapped up the Iron Fey series with the fourth and final novel The Iron Knight which we reviewed earlier this week. We caught up with Julie to discuss the series and what she has in store for us in the future.

What was your favourite chapter to write and why? What was your least favourite chapter?

My favourite chapter in The Iron Knight is probably the third and final trial of the Testing Grounds. I can't say anything more because of spoilers, but I got to write Ash in a completely new and unique way, as something that he's never been before. I think my least favourite chapter was a certain scene with the characters’ evil dopplegangers, because it was hard keeping track of who was where and what they were doing.

Were there any story lines that you wanted to explore in the series but that somehow didn't fit? Would you ever consider releasing your "outtakes"?

Nothing in Iron Knight stands out; I had a pretty clear cut idea of how the story was going to go. There were just a few deleted scenes that never made it into the book. But the Iron Fey website actually has a few of these outtakes if you want to take a look.

Who is your least favourite character in the Iron Fey series? Were there any characters you were disappointed in?

My favourite character would have to be Ash, because I love my dark, brooding bad boys with swords. Though Grimalkin runs a very close second. And I don't dislike any of the characters, not even the bad guys. I try to make every character unique, even the ones that don't get much page time, so it's hard to be apathetic towards any of them.

What is your worst habit as a writer? Do you have a really bad habit that somehow works and gives you brilliant results?

Um, no. Lol, my worst habit is being very distracted by Twitter and email and the internet in general. Whenever I'm stuck, or even bored, I open up Tweetdeck to see what's going on. This does not give me brilliant results, this just makes me frantic when deadlines roll around. ;-)

What are you working on now? I really liked that you brought out novellas to supplement the Iron Fey series. Is this something that you will continue to do in future?

Right now I'm working on my new series Blood of Eden, which will feature post-apocalyptic vampires. The novellas were actually the idea of my publisher, and will probably continue to come out between books. To follow Winter’s Passage and Summer’s Crossing, there just might be another in the works. But I can say no more right now!

It is good to hear that we have more to look forward from Julie Kagawa and I look forward to the Blood of Eden series. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Julie.

Article written by me and first published as Interview with Julie Kagawa, author of The Iron Knight on Blogcritics.

Book Review: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 09:22:57 PST

I always reach the end of a series with a mix of sadness and excitement. On the one hand I’ve finally finished the story and hopefully all of the various questions and threads have been resolved; on the other hand, I’m often saying goodbye to characters that I’ve grown to love over time. This was exactly how I felt at the end of Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Queen as we reached the end of Meghan Chase’s story after the Iron Fey trilogy. I was really thrilled then when Meghan’s love interest and knight, the Winter Prince Ash, pursues one final quest so that he can return to Meghan in the Iron Realm.

The Iron Fey series is set in the fantastical world of the Nevernever. This is not the friendly and safe realm of children’s fairy tales but the dark and twisted world of trickery, favours and the eternal war between the Winter and Summer Courts. The only thing that the summer and winter fey have in common is that iron is toxic to them and so it is that when Meghan rises to the throne of the Iron Realm, the Winter Prince Ash cannot stay by her side for fear that he will be poisoned.

The Iron Knight follows the story of Ash and the Summer prankster Puck as they scour the Nevernever for a way for Ash to become mortal and withstand life in the Iron Realm. The story begins at the home of the Bone Witch in the most dangerous part of the Wyldwood where they are joined in their quest by the cait sith Grimalkin, the bad Wolf of lore and Ash’s dead former love, Ariella.

They travel down the River of Dreams to the very ends of the Nevernever, stopping briefly in the land of Phaed where faeries go when they lose their name and no one remembers them anymore. This desperate place can only be found by those Fey who are dying, so what omens does that predict for this fearless band of Fey?

The descriptions of the River of Dreams, with its monsters, nightmares, hopes, dreams and treasures is quite incredible and Julie Kagawa really does have an remarkable imagination. The group must run a series of gauntlets involving Fu dogs and golden orbs, keys, traps and fire breathing dragons, a sphinx riddle and a hall of mirrors before finally reaching the End of the World and entering the Testing Grounds where Ash must perform his final quests.

"Hey, I've run a few gauntlets in my time," Puck shot back. "They're basically all the same - you have your physical challenges, a pointless riddle or two, and there's always a few nasty traps”.

There seem to be no bounds to Julie Kagawa’s inventiveness as she creates a universe that stretches beyond the limits of time and space. Her descriptions of the end of the Nevernever, the Briars, creatures, gauntlets and guardians of the Testing Grounds are fascinating.

The problem is that The Iron Knight moved really slowly in parts. The journey to the End of the World takes over two-thirds of the book and for much of that we have nothing else but the witty banter of Ash and Puck to keep us going. And just as you imagine might occur if you were stuck on a real journey with two men engaged in a constant battle of egos, the constant taunts and jostling tend to get really tiresome after a while.

Perhaps this slow pace was partially due to the first person narrative of Ash. It might have seemed like a good idea to give the dark, brooding protagonist a voice but in the end, men of little words tend to give away very little and it doesn’t make for gripping reading.

In fact, if I wasn’t so invested in the story after reading The Iron Queen, there is every chance I would have given up half way through this book.

Then there is the notion of mortality and what it means to be human. Ultimately, Kagawa reduced the human condition to three things: weakness of the flesh; conscience, guilt and morality; and finally, mortality. Basically, it appears that it was a bit ambitious to tackle the meaning of life in a young adult novel and what of creativity, hopes, desires and the unconquerable nature of the human mind and spirit?

Despite my reservations and the way the story dragged, I am glad that I read it and The Iron Knight is a fitting end to the Iron Fey series. I will definitely read Julie Kagawa’s next series when it comes out.

And so, for the first time, I feel I must qualify my rating. Out of 5, I give The Iron Knight 5 stars for inventiveness, ingenuity and the overall story, 2 stars for pace and interest and 3 stars for the shaky summation of the human condition. All told, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

You can buy The Iron Knight at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

Article first published as Book Review: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa on Blogcritics.

A copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

TV Review: Being Human – “A Spectre Calls”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:31:46 PST

1975. Alfie Kirby (James Lance) is walking along the street with a little boy, teaching him the Green Cross Code. He fails, spectacularly. Well, I guess that depends on how you look at it. Maybe watching Kirby get rear-ended by a car at 60mph prevented the little boy from breaching the rules of the road ever again.

Barry, present day. Annie (Lenora Crichlow) is driving Tom and Hal up the wall with the illustrated rota she has drawn up for Eve's care. Hal tries his best to explain that he already has an obsessive schedule, necessary in order for him to stay on the wagon, but Annie doesn’t care.

The doorbell rings and in walks Creepy Kirby. He is a ghost and he says that Nina has sent him from the other side but no one with hair that bad could ever be trusted. Annie wants to know why Nina didn’t come herself but Creepy Kirby scoffs, werewolves can’t be ghosts, that really wouldn’t make sense!

Creepy Kirby does everything in his power to generate dissent in the household. He moves in as close as he can get to a stressed and exhausted Annie, plants seeds of doubt in her mind about Hal (Damien Molony) and superbly plays up Tom’s insecurities and doubts. In short, he is a nasty piece of work with an even nastier fashion sense. The strangest thing of all is how desperate he is to get close to Eve.

Despite the thrill of seeing Hal in an apron in “The Graveyard Shift”, trying to chat up the clueless Michaela, last week’s episodes wasn’t one of my favourites. “A Spectre Calls” sees Being Human right back on form though and I really enjoyed it. Of course, I might simply be biased after seeing Hal shirtless, performing push ups, Hal in a tank top and Hal crying.

Yes, crying. Because Creepy Kirby really is a nasty piece of work and he knows all about Hal and the lives that he destroyed. He knows just what a monster Hal really was and he threatens to tell Annie all about it.

And then there is Tom. He never grew up with the luxury of a loving family, living on the run as he did with McNair. It is his 21st birthday and he has never even had a birthday cake before. But don’t worry, Creepy Kirby is there to really rub it in.

Spoiler warning: do not read further if you have not seen Being Human – “A Spectre Calls”

Kirby succeeds and soon both Hal and Tom are alienated in their own home. Tom storms out after a fight with Hal, leaving to celebrate his 21st birthday in true British binge-drinking style. Kirby manages to provoke Hal right up to the point where he loses control and Annie sees him as a threat to Eve and kicks him out. We finally see the return of the ambitious vampire-yuppie Cutler (Andrew Gower) when he poses as a lawyer (what else could a vampire-yuppie pose as?) and gets Tom out of jail. He almost convinces Tom that he can trust him but he most certainly cannot!

Damien Molony was incredible in this episode. His range of acting is impressive but I am really looking forward to him losing his temper in the very near future. No one can repress that much rage and violence without a major meltdown occurring.

Talking about meltdowns, Annie went all Rose Tyler / Bad Wolf in this episode and it was freaking amazing. Seriously, look at this:

The star of “A Spectre Calls” was James Lance (and the writers and wardrobe designers). The Toy Man storyline was horrific, as was Kirby’s happy dancing to “Barbara Streisand” towards the end of the episode. Creepy Kirby was really well written and had a fabulous dialogue. Kudos to James Lance for pulling it off so well.

Prime quotes include:

Kirby: “Evil is like travelling first class. Try it once and you can never go back”.

and

Kirby: “Dammit, I’m so good I’m Starsky and Hutch!”

Double spoiler warning!!!

So who do you think The Woman (Gina Bramhill) in the television screen is, the one we met in “Eve of the War” from the year 2037? I remain as convinced as ever that she is Eve, determined to end her own life to avoid the final fall to the vampires that we saw in 2037. I think the biggest clue is how sad she was when she thought Annie was gone. This is a girl who would have been brought up by Annie, after all.

And what do you think about Hal’s burnt arm? Has he become the evil foe predicted by the prophecy and will Tom’s blood eventually kill him?

I guess we’ll have to wait until next Sunday for “Hold the Front Page”.

TV Review: Merlin – “Lamia”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:19:50 PST

After an explosive start to the fourth season, in which The Dorocha attacked the kingdom, King Uther was murdered, a dragon was hatched and Arthur became king, BBC Merlin returns with the eighth episode. “Lamia” is one of those filler episodes in which there are no significant, ground-breaking events and no significant character development either.

“Servant of Two Masters” ended with Gaius (Richard Wilson) reminding Arthur that he had known him since birth and that he would never betray him. Always slow on the uptake, Arthur is learning to trust himself and those around him, including Gwen, his knights and, unfortunately, Agravaine.

“Lamia” begins with a ghastly attack on a village which leaves villagers not quite dead but in a coma-like state. An old friend visits Gwen and it transpires that her village has been under attack for some time. Gaius is needed at Camelot as there is an outbreak of the sleeping sickness (and I also think he suspects the attacks on the villagers are magical in nature) and so he sends Merlin (Colin Morgan) to see to it, with Gwen leading the way.

Unable to heal the villagers or achieve any improved at all, Merlin, Gwen (Angel Coulby) and the knights do not stay long at the village and head back to Camelot to consult Gaius. On the way, they encounter a gang of bandits attacking a young girl. Naturally, Gwaine leaps to action and calamity ensues as the girl is saved and the bandits defeated.

The girl is Lamia (Charlene McKenna) and very soon, strange things begin to happen as the knights fall under her spell. She does not like Merlin, is not too keen on Gwen either, and the knights soon follow suit. Far from the loyalty that they have shown Merlin in recent episodes, the knights are all to quick to turn on Merlin and on each other in their quest for Lamia. First Sir Percival (Tom Hopper) then Sirs Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun), Gwaine (Eoin Macken) and Leon (Rupert Young) fall under her spell.

Little do they suspect that Lamia is not her name. In fact, a Lamia is a creature of magic, an awful hybrid created by mingling the blood of a girl and serpent. Her kiss is deadly as she drains the souls of men and she can kill with a single touch.

As we prepare for major revelations and developments in the final episodes of the season, there are always going to be filler episodes like “Lamia”. I didn’t dislike this episode as such, but I disliked quite a few aspects of it.

For instance, I didn’t like the formulaic fight against the bandits in the forest. There is always a lot of mayhem and action and then a seemingly insurmountable challenge where Merlin must use his magic without anyone else noticing.

I’m also pretty tired of Agravaine (Nathaniel Parker) and his relentless sabotage. I really feel that he should have been left out of this episode entirely as he added nothing to it and there was no logic behind his attempts to mislead Arthur in the woods. Come on writers! We expect greater intelligence and wit from our nemeses!

Finally, I wasn’t too keen on Arthur’s excessive lack of faith in Merlin when Gaius suggests that he take his place on the visit to Longstead. I know that sooner or later he is going to learn how powerful Merlin is and I know we need to create a juxtaposition but this is no way to speak about the most powerful wizard of all time:

Gaius: “He has a knowledge of the healing arts. If the diagnosis is straightforward, he can prescribe a remedy, I'm sure”.
Arthur: “And what if it isn't?”
Gaius: “Then he can bring his findings to me”.
Arthur: “Findings? Merlin can't find his own backside most of the time”.

Fear not! I didn’t dislike everything about the episode. I loved Charlene McKenna in her role as the Lamia and I would have recognised that voice anywhere. We last saw her in Being Human last season in “The Looking Glass”. She is such a beautiful woman and a great actress with a voice like silk. Okay, she is not so pretty when she shows her true Lamia form.

I liked Gwen’s role in this episode and how she saves the day. I love how she went crazy at the end of the episode. I also enjoyed when Sir Leon and Sir Gwaine turned on each other and began sword fighting each other.

It is episodes like this that make me want to rush to the end of the season although I don’t want the season to end. Surely we’re going to lose Agravaine or Morgana soon? If I remember from Arthurian legend, Morgana’s end is Arthur’s own end so I guess we’re stuck with her for at least another season but surely we can lose Agravaine?

Next week we begin the countdown to the end of the season with “Lancelot du Lac”. I can tell you now, that is not one of my favourite episodes at all but not for the same reasons that I didn’t like this episode!

Click on the photos for full resolution promo stills.

Book review: The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:05:00 PST

There is something really priceless in choosing a novel on a whim and then realising you have discovered an absolute gem. I was fortunate enough to have this experience recently when I picked up The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry. The Peculiars is a young adult, steampunk fantasy set in an alternative America in the late 1800s. If you like steam engines, Victorian-era fashions and wild and wonderful inventions, then you are going to love this fantastical adventure.

On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar receives a small inheritance and an envelope from her father Saul. She has not seen her father since he left for the northern wilderness of Scree, a land filled with Peculiars and other undesirables, when she was merely a child. She decides to leave her mother and grandmother in the City and travel alone by train to Knob Knoster (on the border of Scree), a practice almost unheard of amongst well-bred young ladies. Then again, Lena’s Nana Crane always warned her of her father’s goblin blood and the wild traits that she would inherit.

Lena has endured a lifetime of stares and mutters and has kept her very long hands and feet well gloved and booted as a result. Cautious to avoid any unwanted attention, she tries all she can to dissuade young Jimson Quiggley from keeping her company when she meets him on the train to Knob Knoster. Her discomfort is soon forgotten when there is an armed robbery on the train and her purse goes missing in the chaos. What was to be a short stopover in Knoster while she secured a guide into Scree becomes an exercise in raising the funds she lost on the train.

Lena is soon charmed by the handsome lawman and marshal Thomas Saltre, who seems quite interested in everything she has to say and in her journey to Scree. Assured that he is the best guide she could possibly find into Scree, Lena makes her way to the home of inventor Tobias Beasley where she runs into Jimson Quiggley again. She secures work at Beasley's library while she tries to recoup her missing money and seems only too pleased to pass on information to marshal Saltre when she begins to notice strange happenings at the house.

Nothing is as simple as it seems though and Lena makes a significant error in judgement that puts all of the wrong people in danger. What follows is a chase across air and land in an era where air travel was only beginning to be dreamed of. We encounter goblins and people with wings; flying coaches, dirigibles and unscrupulous lawmen; indentured Peculiar labourers and precious Titantum mines; and all the while, Lena embarks on a journey that teaches her loyalty, integrity and the value of friendship.

McQuerry imparts an incredible amount of detail without weighing the story down. She creates such a vivid impression that I could almost feel the stiff fabric of the Victorian clothing and the discomfort Lena experienced as she tried to fit her long, spidery hands and feet (each with additional joints on her fingers and toes) into formal gloves and boots. I could imagine the textures of the material and started to appreciate how many layers and accessories were required in proper Victorian attire. McQuerry’s writing appealed to other senses too as I could almost smell the soup in the kitchen and feel the cold, wind and steam as they cascaded through the air in the coach.

McQuerry has created a wonderful world with The Peculiars and I will certainly be looking out for her work in the future. In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I would investigate other works in the streampunk genre in future. The Peculiars will be released on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk on May 1, 2012.

I give The Peculiars five out of five stars.

Article first published as Book Review: The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry on Blogcritics.
An advance, electronic copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

TV Review: Being Human – “The Graveyard Shift”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:43:54 PST

London 1855. Fergus (Anthony Flanagan) is looking just dandy in his red Crimean War coatee. He's having a fine time taunting a poor servant woman bound, gaged and tied up in a chair. He can’t kills her, he says, it is against protocol and he waxes on about his friend, saying he can’t figure out why everyone is so scared of him.

Fergus: “Sometimes I think the only demon worse than him must be the one he’s fleeing from”

He’s not scared of him, he says. “Not scared of who?”, enquires a voice coming up the stairs. And then we see Hal, shirtless and sporting a moustache, covered in blood. Oh. My. Gosh. Excuse me while I run that back and watch it another dozen times.

It seems that Hal is a very bad vampire, indeed. Not only did he know Fergus but he also knew all Mitchell’s old friends Ivan, Wyndham, and Hettie.

Moving on swiftly to present day, Elbow’s “Grounds for Divorce” blasts as we find Tom (Michael Socha) preparing for a shopping trip with Annie and Eve. Annie (Lenora Crichlow) is reduced to stealing baby food while Tom does his best to creep out the till assistant. Once thing is clear: Hal needs to get a job.

Of course, the idea goes down a storm with the obsessive compulsive vampire who barely manages to keep control by avoiding all human interaction.

Hal (enunciating e.v.e.r.y. syllable): “This is me hanging on by my finger nails and going to work? Out of the question”.

As you can see, Hal loses that particular argument. Doesn’t he just look special in his cafe apron?

Hal: “Seriously, kill me now. You can tell Annie I attacked you or something”.
Tom: "Maybe later".

Meanwhile, Annie and Tom’s little shopping trip didn’t exactly go unnoticed and ~~Mr Weasley~~ Regus (Mark Williams) is not impressed. He didn’t go to all that trouble to spare Eve’s life only to have Annie take risks with her. He warns Annie that Something is coming for Eve but Annie says that prophecies are only dangerous when you start believing in them. Check out Regus’s Team Edward t-shirt!

Back at the cafe, we meet Michaela (Laura Patch), an attention-seeking freak of a wannabe Goth. Michaela is a poet and writer, confident that she will one day write her masterpiece in the cafe just like JK Rowling. Um, yes, right.

The charm of “The Graveyard Shift” is in its priceless one liners and hilarious comedy. In fact, it is almost like a series of sketches, topped off with a nasty surprise. Without spoiling too much of the episode, I will give you seven titbits of hilarity:

The sex scene in the forest where Regus experiences sex through Annie’s eye a little too vicariously for his liking.
The pissing contest between Hal and Tom as they try to get Michaela’s telephone number is brilliant and may I just mention that I would definitely give Hal my number.
Tom (to Michaela): “I like your tights. They look like a bee, and I like bees”.
Annie: “What happened to your face?”
Regus: “My lunch fought back”.
Regus (to Annie): You need to hide in the middle of nowhere. Go to Bangor.
Hal: “I can't live without central heating, carpets and Radio 4”.
Hal picking up a lads mag with a glove and putting it in its rightful place – the bin.

Spoiler warning: do not read further if you have not seen Being Human – “The Graveyard Shift”.

As funny as it was, “The Graveyard Shift” has all the makings of a filler episode until some pretty salient details begin to bleed through. (Bleed, vampire show, get it? Oh, nevermind). For example, the casual way that we learn that Hal is an Old One.

Wait, what? Hal is an Old One!!! That is really serious! Can we trust him with Eve? Of course we can. He couldn’t be that gorgeous and evil too, right? I mean look at Tom Riddle. Oh, wait, moving on…

We learn that Hal used to be massively powerful and that he was known as Lord Harry. That’s pretty funny. A control-freak, obsessive-compulsive, pedantic vampire named Lord Harry? Priceless.

I’m not going to completely spoil the ending for you. Although funny, this is a pretty slow-moving episode and all of the action happens in the final couple of scenes. Suffice to say that I am really sad to lose one of my favourites nemeses ever and am having a hard time accepting that dust is dust and that the vamp is gone for good.

I think the Tom / Hal double act is brilliant and I really like how quickly Michael Socha and Damien Molony settled into their onscreen dynamic. I’m really loving how quirky Hal is and how absolutely seriously he takes himself. He’s not as self-pitying as Mitchell was but he is pretty dark in an entirely different way. I like that Tom and Hal are not just replacements for George and Mitchell but that they are completely different characters and absolutely memorable ones too. Of course, it is no secret that I’ve developed entirely inappropriate feelings for Hal and I love every moment he is on screen. Especially the ones where he is shirtless and sporting a moustache.

Roll on Sunday and episode 4 “A Spectre Calls”.

TV Review: Merlin – “The Secret Sharer”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:30:10 PST

There are television villains that we love to hate, the dark and brooding nemeses that we simply cannot get enough of. And then there are villains that we just wish would disappear from our screens, never to return. My feelings towards Agravaine (Nathaniel Parker), half of the horrible pair of villains in season 4 of Merlin tend towards the latter. He is sneaky and manipulative and I cannot wait for his inevitable demise. The fact that Arthur (Bradley James) trusts and believes in him is an insult to Arthurian legend and the mighty King of Camelot.

Just in case I didn’t think Agravaine could get any more creeptastic, “The Secret Sharer” opens with him stroking Morgana’s face tenderly while the witch recovers from Merlin’s attack. And Morgana? She is even worse with her eyes rolling back in her head while she throws herself around the bed. (Note, this is no reflection on the acting skills of Katie McGrath. Quite the opposite in fact: she has successfully portrayed one of the nastiest witches of all time).

Morgana finally awakens and explains to Agravaine that it was Emrys who attacked her and destroyed the Fomorroh. The horrible duo realise that Emrys knows all their plans and they come to the conclusion that it is Gaius (Richard Wilson) who is behind it. Gaius is the only person in the whole of Camelot who could have identified the Fomorroh and the only person who could have told Emrys how to destroy it.

Agravaine goes to Arthur where he begins to sow the scenes of doubt, reminding him that it was Gaius who brought Emrys in to kill his father, that he has dabbled in magic and sorcery before.

Elsewhere, Morgana seeks out Alator of the Catha (Gary Lewis), a powerful sorcerer, warrior and priest of the old religion. He calls her the High Priestess of the Triple Goddess, which I find quite interesting. Which Triple Goddess might that be? Greed, jealousy and treachery? She convinces Alator to kidnap Gaius in order to extract from him the identity of Emrys in return for her healing bracelet, which she says was forged on the Isle of the Blessed by a High Priestess.

When Gaius disappears overnight, Agravaine seizes the opportunity to paint him as a thief, traitor and sorcerer and it appears for some time that he might just have convinced Arthur of this. There is no convincing Merlin though and once again, Colin Morgan shows the infinite extent of his acting abilities as Merlin remains fiercely loyal to his mentor.

Just when it seems that Merlin has no one to turn to and no hope of rescuing Gaius, he convinces Sir Gwaine (Eoin Macken) that Gaius has been kidnapped and Sir Gwaine helps him track him to a cave off the ridge of Kemeray.

Deep inside the cave, Gaius finally gives up the identity of Emrys to Alator but what will he do with that information? I will leave you with this snippet of their conversation but won’t spoil the episode for you further:

Alator: “Who is he?”
Gaius: “He is the most powerful sorcerer who has ever lived”.
Alator: “What is his name?”
Gaius: “His name is... Merlin. For the druids' legends are true. Merlin is... Emrys, a man destined for greatness. A man who will one day unite the powers of the old world and the new, and bring the time that the poets speak of. The time of Albion.

Spoiler warning: do not read further if you have not seen Merlin – “The Secret Sharer”

So who is the secret sharer? Is it Gaius who shares the identity of Emrys with Alator or Alator who goes on to betray Morgana and then share his burden with Merlin and pledge his loyalty to him? It seems that secrets are shared in this episode but only within the circle of trust.

There are many more secrets on the cusp of being revealed. Sir Gwaine is only too ready to believe that Agravaine kidnapped Gaius before Agravaine convinces him otherwise and Arthur must surely begin to see that Gaius, Gwen (Angel Coulby) and Merlin do not trust him.

Gaius is certainly redeemed at the end of the episode and Arthur knows that Morgana was probably behind his abduction. It remains to be seen whether Gaius’s words finally sink in:

Gaius: “Contained within this great kingdom is a rich variety of people with a range of different beliefs. I'm not the only one seeking to protect you. There are many more who believe in the world you are trying to create. One day you will learn, Arthur. One day you will understand...just how much they've done for you”.

It seems to be a recurring theme in Merlin that Arthur can only assume his destiny and embrace his greatness once he chooses to trust those around him.

So what of the episode as a whole? I really enjoyed this episode and was absolutely thrilled when Alator betrayed Morgana. I love his name, Alator of the Catha and I liked the concept of priests of the Old Religion recognising Merlin’s power and pledging their allegiance and support to him. I also quite loved Gary Lewis and his Scottish accent.

I was glad that Sir Gwaine finally got the chance to prove himself as, like Merlin, he is often the brunt of jokes and mockery from King Arthur and the knights of Camelot. Like Sir Lancelot before his departure, it is good for Merlin to have an ally amongst the knights, someone who believes in him and will risk there life for him.

I also liked that Gaius had the opportunity to impress upon King Arthur his loyalty and the fact that he had watched Arthur grow up. Gaius is such a central character in the show, representing in many ways the wise old sage that Merlin will become, but too often he is cast in a silly or doddering light. It was good to see him shown a little bit of respect for a change.

As usual, the star of the episode was Colin Morgan. He really is an exceptional actor, one that I have uniquely come to appreciate not from a fan perspective (meaning that I carried on like a crazed and obsessed fangirl) but because he really is that good, and it would be great for him to see more recognition.

Book Review: If I Die by Rachel Vincent

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:12:38 PST

Fans of Rachel Vincent’s fantastic young adult Soul Screamers series always knew that bean sidhe Kaylee Cavanaugh was living on borrowed time. When she was three years old, Kaylee died in a car accident but her distraught father pleaded with the reaper to save the life of his daughter and take him instead. Of course, everyone knows that reapers have a rather warped sense of humour so the reaper spared Kaylee’s life but took her mother in exchange.

Since then, the young bean sidhe (banshee) has been living her mother’s timeline while she wrestled souls from demons, supported her Demon’s Breath-addicted bean sidhe boyfriend Nash, and came to terms with her need to scream blue murder every time someone in her vicinity dies. Such is the life of a bean sidhe (or banshee as you probably know them).

Now her time is up. Nash’s dead reaper brother Tod breaks the news that Kaylee’s name has appeared on his list and reaper rules are pretty clear about second extensions – there are none.

With just days to live, Kaylee tries everything in her power to get her father and Nash to accept her fate and not interfere or mess with the reaper. Meanwhile, she realises that something is not quite right with the new math teacher, Mr Beck. With the help of Nash’s mara girlfriend, Kaylee soon figures out that that Beck is an incubus, an energy-sucking lust-demon. Can she save the school from this deadly Netherworld creature before time truly runs out?

If I Die is the fifth novel in Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers series featuring bean sidhes Kaylee and Nash and a host of supernatural creatures including hellions, maras, reapers, incubi and even the occasional human being. What will thrill fans most about this instalment is not the fact that Kaylee is dying or that she is once again fighting evil, but the massive twist in the love relationship between her and Nash. I am not going to spoil it by saying what the twist was, I’m not even going to hint, but let’s just say that I spent most of the book thrilled, a short portion devastated and then I was absolutely happy in the end.

In fact, I liked almost everything in this book. I love that Tod got a much bigger part in this story and I have to say that I knew all along, ever since his eyes started churning two books ago. Cryptic, I know, but it is hard to wax lyrical about something so integral to the plot without spoiling and ruining it for other readers and it certainly would have spoiled it for me if I’d had even a clue of what was in store.

There were a couple of things I did not like about this book but that had more to do with character development than any fault of the author, Rachel Vincent. Nash has always been clueless and self-centred and this book was no exception, his ex-girlfriend Sabine (the mara or living nightmare) is pointlessly irritating and nasty, and Kaylee’s cousin Sophie is still as jealous, insecure and immature as ever.

On the other hand, Kaylee is a fantastic heroine and is miles ahead of the frightened, confused girl we met in My Soul to Take. She is determined and displays integrity, maturity and skill in controlling her bean sidhe abilities. Once again, Rachel Vincent exceeds herself in the description of the Netherworld and of the supernatural creatures that bleed into our reality.

She builds on the Soul Screamers novellas and winds up the story of Kaylee’s stay in the secure psychiatric unit in My Soul to Lose and that of Tod’s death and the sacrifice he made in Reaper. I would absolutely recommend that you read the novellas before reading this book as they add to the story and complete the experience.

I have no hesitation in giving If I Die five out of five stars and no matter how different circumstances now are, I look forward to the next book in the Soul Screamers series, Before I Wake.

Buy If I Die from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Article first published as Book Review: If I Die by Rachel Vincent on Blogcritics.
A copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

TV Review: Being Human – “Being Human 1955”

noreply@blogger.com (The Media Addict) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:15:30 PDT

Following the drama, gore and tragedy of season opener "Eve of the War", Being Human returns with "Being Human 1955". This episode is a lot of fun and definitely provides the comic relief we needed after last week.

The episode opens at the Southend-on-Sea barbershop where time stood still. Hal (Damien Molony) and Pearl (Tamla Kari) argue about who should carry out the brutal murder of Hal’s greatest enemy, the spider upstairs. While Hal and Pearl disappear upstairs to commit the crime, Leo remains behind and is contacted through the gramophone by The Woman from the future in “Eve of the War”.

Coming from 2037, I still maintain that she is none other than future Eve but I guess time will tell. Leo interprets the disembodied voice as an angel when she tells him that he must journey west to visit the home of a werewolf and a ghost, who are guardians of the child that will save us all.

Back in Barry, Tom returns home in the early morning after pulling an all-nighter. Annie is not impressed because Tom has broken her precious commandments:

Annie: “Why don’t we just run through them again so that we’re clear?”
Tom: "No smoking, no dialling 0800-numbers. All dishes must be washed, dried and put away, not left to drip. No bringing girls home. Never put a cup down without a coaster. And if I’m gonna be late, two rings.
Annie: "And we're missing one, aren't we?"
Tom: "No killing vampires"

As hilarious as it is that Annie has turned into a fixated ghost-mother hen, that is nothing compared to an obsessive-compulsive vampire who cannot stop at petrol stations situated on the left hand side of the road. And so it is that Hal and Pearl push a stunning 1950s baby-blue Mercedes Benz into the town of Barry. I absolutely love the music, costumes, styling and props surrounding these three characters and I love Hal’s whole stiff and proper old English gentleman act.

The minute the three Southend-on-Sea supernaturals arrive at Annie and Tom’s house, there is tension with Tom nearly driving a stake through Hal’s heart. But they tell them of the “prophecy” and Annie goes into overdrive, preparing a ludicrous ceremony in the hopes that the messiah-like child Eve can cure the ailing Leo.

Not surprisingly, it doesn’t work because, you know, Eve is just a child and far-fetched stuff like that just doesn’t happen. Still, it is becoming ever clearer that Annie completely lost the plot and now we’re adding a really peculiar vampire to the mix.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Hal in this episode. As Leo prepares for his eventual departure, he briefs Annie on the rules for taking care of Hal. We learn that he has been dry for 55 years and that you need to keep him away from people, small dogs, budgies and blood. More important than all of that, they are not to allow him to drink Kia-Ora under any circumstances (and not just because it is a really awful English squash, either).

Leo promises that he’ll tell Annie the rules for taking care of Pearl but we never get a chance to hear those.

This episode is about control, dominos, poltergeists and facing your pain and I loved every minute of it. I loved the love story at the at the centre of it all and really liked the ending. Most of all, I enjoyed the scenes with Tom and Hal in the pawn shop. I loved Tom’s reaction to the wolf on the wall and how Hal first holds Tom back from attacking the shopkeeper and then the roles are reversed.

I liked the original Mitchell (Guy Flanagan) from the Being Human pilot in 2008 and I grew to love Aidan Turner as Mitchell in the first three seasons. Now that George, Nina and Mitchell have left the show, I am now happy to say that I adore Damien Molony as Hal. Seriously, none of these promo photos do him justice, he is gorgeous.

When the closing credits began to roll on last night’s episode, my only thought was that I do not know how I am going to last an entire week until the next instalment. I guess I’m going to have to re-watch the first two on iPlayer to tide me by! Suffice to say, I am really, really happy with this season of Being Human.

Oooooh! There are a whole load of extras on the Being Human blog!

BBC Being Human - "Being Human 1955" promo stills